Kirsten, silent force behind Team India

The Proteans man-management skills have been exceptional

The former left-handed opening batsman is quiet and under-stated, shies away from the limelight and lets his work do the talking for him, characteristics that stood him in excellent stead during his illustrious international career and that haven’t harmed his coaching career one bit.

Kirsten wasn’t necessarily India’s first choice as replacement for Greg Chappell, the former Australian skipper whose stint with the national team ended after the World Cup disaster in the Caribbean in2007. Indeed, the Board of Control for Cricket in India had announced that Graham Ford would succeed Chappell, but Ford cried off at the last minute, leaving the BCCI red-faced and the team without a coach.

India had a succession of cricket managers between the end of the Chappell era and the beginning of the Kirsten age. Former Indian skipper Ravi Shastri, Chandu Borde and Lalchand Rajput stepped in as cricket managers, and with some success, before Kirsten assumed charge during the home series against the country of his birth in March 2008.
As a dour but effective opening bat, Kirsten’s greatest asset was his ability to get the job done. He wasn’t the most graceful, but his game revolved around mind over matter. His coaching philosophy is remarkably simple too, based as much on man-management skills as on anything else.

Player after player has gone out of his way to place Kirsten’s contributions on record. First Mahendra Singh Dhoni, then Sachin Tendulkar eulogized Kirsten before and after the second one-dayer here, the former crediting him with an ‘open mindset’ and the latter extolling the coach for ‘keeping the team together’. The Chappell era was notable for controversies and spats, players publicly and privately accusing him of triggering insecurity among rank and file. The former Australian skipper was honest and outspoken but set in his ways. Where Kirsten has scored is in emulating John Wright, India’s first overseas coach, and adopting an Indian approach which has gone down brilliantly with the players.

The first indications that Kirsten and the team would get along famously came during India’s acrimonious tour of Australia in 2007-08. In the capacity of a consultant, Kirsten spent a week or so with Anil Kumble’s team in the immediacy of the Sydney fiasco. Having played against the likes of Kumble, Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman and Sourav Ganguly, Kirsten immediately struck a chord; Kumble made no secret of Kirsten’s contributions – strategic and psychological – in India’s remarkable victory in the Perth Test.

Under Kirsten, India have had tremendous success. Media-shy to the point of being reticent, he is at his happiest during practice, spending hours on throw-downs and in giving catches. His work ethics are impeccable and have inevitably rubbed off on the team, contributing in no small measure to the ‘happy family’ that Tendulkar described the Indian team as.

Having taken India to number one in the Test rankings and number two in the one-dayers, Kirsten’s immediate challenge, alongside skipper Dhoni, is the World T20 in the Caribbean, but the big one, next year’s World Cup, will eventually determine just how history will record the Kirsten legacy. The signs are promising, but there is plenty of work to be done, as the coach and his appreciative wards are well aware.